Postal rates increased today for many services provided by the USPS (United States Postal Service). Luckily, the May postage increase should not cause too much pain for most eBay sellers. Priority and Express Mail prices won’t change. The cost of Priority Mail Flat Rate Boxes also stay the same. The cost to ship a 1 ounce letter increases from 42 cents to 44 cents, but the cost to ship each additional ounce remains 17 cents. The cost to ship large envelopes and packages First Class also increase 5 cents and 3 cents respectively. The cost of First Class International has increased (But you should never ship this way on eBay ). The cost of Delivery Confirmation is increasing, but is still free when you print the label online and ship via Priority Mail. At the Post Office, Delivery Confirmation costs 5 cents more – 70 cents for Priority and 80 cents for First Class. When printing online, the cost of Delivery Confirmation on First Class parcels increases 1 cent to 19 cents. The cost of Signature Confirmation is increasing 15 cents. When the shipping label is printed online the cost is $1.95 and at the Post Office it costs $2.35. The cost for various other services also increase up to around 20 cents. If you would like to find out how much a particular service has increased, you can view the January 2009 Prices and compare them with the May 2009 Price List.

Priority and Express Mail pricing should change again next January.

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What about Media Mail? I used calculated shipping with a $1.77 handling fee to result in a $4 charge for a 1 pound item (to comply with eBay’s limit on the amount you can charge to ship vinyl LPs). Now I see my charges have gone up to $4.15. I was wondering if eBay would raise the limit (that’s how I came across your blog), or if they think sellers should absorb the increase (Amazon.com’s shipping allowance of $2.98 never changes with increases in postal rates).

The cost of Media Mail has increased. You can compare the prices between January and May

The cost for 1 pound went up 15 cents to $2.38, 2 pounds went up 19 cents to $2.77, 3 pounds went up 23 cents to $3.16, and 4 pounds went up to 27 cents to $3.55 and so on with each pound increasing an additional 4 cents-.

Amazon ship prices are not seller friendly. Sellers usually absorb the delta in ship costs – Sucks. My books have started to move on eBay more than ever before. Looks like the eBay strategy to focus on buyer (15% off incentive) and seller (second line free), few listings free every month is starting to pay off. No wonder their stock went up 50% over the last few months. Go eBay!